The EGOSOFT Forums
have a follow-up to the recent release of X Rebirth, the new installment
in their space combat series (thanks
IncGamers). The post reflects the mixed reaction the game has met with, as
players are both delighted by what the game offers and frustrated by technical
issues. EGOSOFT's Bernd Lehahn outlines the problems they are currently working
on, and expresses their unhappiness with the bugs amid their pleasure at the
success of the release:

First, I would like to apologise to those of you
who have had technical problems. I have started a thread in the Steam forums
where I have listed the most common errors and have now collected a lot of
information about this. All of this will of course be made available here in our
support forum as soon as our server is able to remain stable under the load.

Secondly, I would like to say how amazed we all are here by the huge success of
the game. Number one on Steam for several days in a row at this time of year
when the big hitters come out... wow, we never expected that. It's crazy to see
that more than 10,000 people are playing our game at any one time on Steam (even
more if you include those who are in offline mode). Madness!

Great though it is to see that the game is so successful and that many people
are having a lot of fun with it, it pains me to see every case where the game
causes problems. Sorry folks, I can only apologise for that.

Quboid wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 20:11:What's the latest X3, is it Albion Prelude? (Edit: seems AP is the newest but it needs TC; £20 for the pack - nope.) Is there an all-in-one mod for that which you guys recommend?

The mod list (thanks SpectralMeat, Taskeen) is interesting. It's encouraging that there's already these fixes, even if many of them should have been in the game from the start.

Get X3 Albion Prelude and install the XRM mod. I think it is the definitive X3 all in one mod. Makes a lot of sensible changes and adds some challenge where needed. Including some graphics tweaks and lots of new ships to play around with.

All this talk made me install it again as well. Not just XRM, but also various scripts (MARS, NPC Bail Script, Cheat Script and "OK Trader")

X3 AP + XRM is simply the better game imo. Using cheat script to give my ships faster speeds and circumvent one of the XRM limitations (Docking computer is XXL size)

Perhaps you should watch EP 8 and 9 so you can hear him start bitching as the 'shiny' starts to where off and the game mechanics start to sink in.

I do like the new way the universe is setup, jump gates to stars then highways to move around those systems... but only 4 star systems? X universe shrank considerably. Though I guess the new setup does allow for 'star systems' to be tacked onto the game, and given EGs track record that's not just a way to milk DLC.

Ship is disappointing to say the least, got the impression you would be able to move around it freely but it's just a cut scene... I'd rather be able to pick and fly whatever ship I wan't. Imagine X3, with XR systems, cap ships and stations, damn that would have been sweet. Well maybe in a year or two, or their next game.

Creston wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 15:41:I can't argue about AP, but TC was a giant clusterfuck as well. I actually wrote a guide to the Terran Plot because so many people were getting stuck in it at the time. There were dozens of ways that entire campaign could break.

So yeah, the bugs are just Egosoft as usual. The stupid gameplay design decision, however....

I actually used this the other day after finally picking up TC/AP in a previous sale (I had 100s of hrs on X3), thanks Creston

Completing the plots feels more like acting out a play, you have to do exactly what they intended you to do otherwise it all goes horribly wrong.

Hahaha, I never thought of it that way. And you're welcome.

Btw, I got a reply from Egosoft to my performance testing:

the performance issue is not dependend on the GPU currently, there is a cueing issue in the engine that makes the renderer awit too long. We are working on it and will provide a performance patch later this week.

Creston wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 15:41:I can't argue about AP, but TC was a giant clusterfuck as well. I actually wrote a guide to the Terran Plot because so many people were getting stuck in it at the time. There were dozens of ways that entire campaign could break.

So yeah, the bugs are just Egosoft as usual. The stupid gameplay design decision, however....

I actually used this the other day after finally picking up TC/AP in a previous sale (I had 100s of hrs on X3), thanks Creston

Completing the plots feels more like acting out a play, you have to do exactly what they intended you to do otherwise it all goes horribly wrong.

Quboid wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 20:11:What's the latest X3, is it Albion Prelude? (Edit: seems AP is the newest but it needs TC; £20 for the pack - nope.) Is there an all-in-one mod for that which you guys recommend?

The mod list (thanks SpectralMeat, Taskeen) is interesting. It's encouraging that there's already these fixes, even if many of them should have been in the game from the start.

Get X3 Albion Prelude and install the XRM mod. I think it is the definitive X3 all in one mod. Makes a lot of sensible changes and adds some challenge where needed. Including some graphics tweaks and lots of new ships to play around with.

AngelicPenguin wrote on Nov 19, 2013, 00:02:I'd seen this somewhere. This was actually one of the things I was really looking forward to in X:R since X3TC was so CPU bound. Didn't they have a developer vid or something talking about how multithreaded it was?

It's actually using four cores pretty well, but there's a (really technical) thread on the Egosoft support forum where certain (really technical) guys suspect there's a Thread Sync issue in the engine which is causing the massive slowdowns people with high-end rigs are seeing.

They've done a lot of testing (with screenshots) to show it using four cores at around 70% or so.

So yeah, it is fortunately multi-threaded, finally. And now it runs ten times slower than TC ever did.

This bums me out. I really want to play this game but it's a slideshow most of the time even after trying all the usual tweaks and such. Nothing helps. Can't wait to actually get to play.

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

AngelicPenguin wrote on Nov 19, 2013, 00:02:I'd seen this somewhere. This was actually one of the things I was really looking forward to in X:R since X3TC was so CPU bound. Didn't they have a developer vid or something talking about how multithreaded it was?

It's actually using four cores pretty well, but there's a (really technical) thread on the Egosoft support forum where certain (really technical) guys suspect there's a Thread Sync issue in the engine which is causing the massive slowdowns people with high-end rigs are seeing.

They've done a lot of testing (with screenshots) to show it using four cores at around 70% or so.

So yeah, it is fortunately multi-threaded, finally. And now it runs ten times slower than TC ever did.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 16:05:I sit corrected. I don't remember hearing anything particularly negative about TC and picked it up last year on the Steam Big Box o' X sale.

As always, they fixed the bugs (or at least most of them. The guide I wrote still has people responding to it to this day that they're getting stuck somewhere.)

Like I said, the design decisions are just a more clear and recent example of Egosoft's grasp exceeding their reach. They've got great ideas and great artists, to be sure, but damn do their systems coders need more experience or to be lead by someone with complex, hierarchical systems experience.

Yeah, absolutely. I think getting a coder who understands how to program something to run on multiple threads might be a good start, since it's kinda doubtful Rebirth actually does that...

I'd seen this somewhere. This was actually one of the things I was really looking forward to in X:R since X3TC was so CPU bound. Didn't they have a developer vid or something talking about how multithreaded it was?

Quboid wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 21:43:"Sorry, this item is not available in your region."

Wait until next week the Steam Fall sale should start up.Also search for "X3: Terran War Pack" on that site the one I've linked to was the NA version I did not realize, not sure if the EU version is on there as well or not, it doesn't show up for me.

Quboid wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 20:11:What's the latest X3, is it Albion Prelude? Is there an all-in-one mod for that which you guys recommend?

The mod list (thanks SpectralMeat, Taskeen) is interesting. It's encouraging that there's already these fixes, even if many of them should have been in the game from the start.

Been a long time since I surfed X3 MODS. I didn't do an 'all in one' though I'm sure they exist. If you pick and choose make sure to grab the ES official or ES approved scripts. I think those are all I used plus the cockpit MOD.

Best advice I can give is to research what MODs you wan't first, don't start a game then look for MODs as some require a fresh start, which sucks if you've got a lot of time already invested in the game... and yes AP is the latest.

PS don't know if it was upgraded in AP but be aware if you start as a Terran getting their economy going can be tough, you can't jump from inside Terran space and they use unique weapons so arming ships is a bitch. Positive side of playing as Terran (at least in TC) is their sectors are totally safe... well except for the fact that your AI ships will suicide into stations if you are in sector.

EDIT and forgot, AFAIK, Terran ships and weapons are the most powerful in the game.

Overon wrote on Nov 18, 2013, 17:37:You know, people who made this game number one make me angry. Why? Because you signal companies that you will pay for dog shit and developers/publishers will continue to release unfinished games. Nevermind the technical issues, the game has design issues that are unlikely ever to be addressed. You have an irrational confidence.

1) As has been said a thousand times before, Egosoft games are very buggy on release. Small dev, no QA, etc. You either accept that, or you wait a few months after release before picking it up. Typically the game is playable, but there are some showstoppers, or parts of the campaign are broken, etc. They usually fix those extremely quickly. (Well within a few weeks), and until that time you can always just enjoy yourself by flying around, capping ships, etc.

2) This is the 7th iteration of the X series. Now, originally it wasn't going to be an X game, and they just kept the name X for the lore, but even so, going into an Egosoft game, you expect certain features to be there. Even more so, going into a space game, you expect certain features to be there. Like an actual outside camera view. Or the ability to fucking TARGET AN ENEMY.

That these things aren't in the game is a surprise to literally every single Egosoft fan.

So I'm not sure what that has to do with an irrational confidence. They've literally never let anyone down yet, and then all of a sudden they do this. And people were supposed to see that coming?

It's like if you're a fan of the London Symphony Orchestra, and the 15th time you go see them live, they've suddenly turned into a fucking grunge band. Should people have seen that coming as well?

For 10+ years they've been making games that I've absolutely loved, and now suddenly they turn retarded. I'll know better to pre-order their next game, but it's stupid to think that everyone could have seen this coming.